DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 156-582 ' SO 010 986

AUTHOR Ready,'MiltonTITLE ,The Impact of the Revolution upcn Georgia's Eccnomy,

7.75 -1789.INSTITUTION' G rgia Cotmissicn'for the Bicertennial Celebration,

`a lanta.; Georgia State Dept. of Educaticn,Atlanta.'

PUB DATE 75NOTE 25p.; Edr related documents, see SO 01C SE7-993;

Figure on page 4 and phctcgiapS on page 7 may notreproduce clearly in hard copy

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EDRS PiICE1

MF-$0.83 HC-$1,67 Plus postage..DESCRIPTORS *Colonial Histbry (United Stat'es); *Ecoricaic Change;

Economic 'Climate; ExEcits; Instucticnal Materials;Junior High School Students; Learning ActivitieS4_'Political InfluenCes; *R.Eading Materials;*Revolutionary War (United .States);, SeccndaryTducation;'Sociel Change; *State Histcry;Supplementary Textbooks; Teaching Guides; *UnitedStates History

IDENTIFIERS ,*Georgia

ABSTRACT .

One clfa series of pamphlets abcut effects of theAmerica Revolution in Georgia, this document reviews.Gecrgialseconomy during the years 1775-1789. It can be used as supplementary .

reading or a two-week 'unit for junior or senior sigh school students.A brief teacher's guide is included. The main part cf the pamphletrelates the political and economic changes created during theRevolution i,n Georgia. Before the Revclution, Georgia had aflourishing economy with rice and indigcexEcrts. Mercantileinterests in London dominated Georgia'vccmmerce and an extensiveplantation economy developed in the coastal low country. Lumbering'also increased. However, beginning with the Statp Act in 1765,.Georgia's export business was curtailed and ultimately piohibitedexcept_with loyal British colonies. Erctlems were compounded bydevaluation of continental ,currency, scarcity of imported foodstuffs:and fart eguipment,'and*the exodus of Tories and slaves who hadmanaged and worked on the plantations. However, within a decade ofthe panic of 1786, Georgia began toacguire, financial stability,increased trade, and attracted new settlers: The teacher's guideprssents learning and 'Skill 'objectives, activities, and discussionquestions based on the text. (Author/AV).

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The Impact ofthe Revolutionupon Georgia'sEconomy

17751789

US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH.EDUCATION & WELFARENATIONAL INSTITUTE OF

EDUCATION

THIS 006JmeNT His BEEN REPRO-DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROMTHE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATIft IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONSSTA ED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OFEDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY

"PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THISMATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

Ave Sr4P6

TO THE EDUCATIONALRESOURCES

INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC/ ykNOUSERS OF THE ERIC SYSTEM

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0

Milton Ready

B.S., University of HoustonM.A., University of Ho,ustonPh.D., University of Georgia

Assistant ProfessorUniversity of NorthCarolina, Asheville

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Editors' Note

One of-the early concerns of the, Georgia Commissionfor the National Bicentennial Celebiation was the lack ofmaterial on Revolutionary Georgia available for use in thestate's public jthools during the bicentAnal years As aresult, one o the first projects of the Commission was thepreparation of a series of pamphlets on the AmericanRevolution in Georgia aimed specifically at public schooluse With the cooperation of the Georgia Department oiEducation, this project has beome a reality Thirteenpamphlets are scheduled-to be published between 1974and 1978

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Our p&p ise in publishing these pamphlets is to presenta clear. col Ise picture of'Georgia's history during theseimpor t days We hope that our efforts will encouraNstudents interest and add to their knowledge of Georgia's

Miring the American Revolution.

Kenneth ColemanMilton Ready

Copyrigh t 0 1975Georgia Commission for 'the

National -Bicentennial Celebration,and

Georgia' De pakt men t of Education

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Lexington, Massachusetts was & tong, long wayfrom the towns, plantations and farms of frontierGeorgia in April of 1775. .Few Georgians had everheard of the little NeW'England town until theyread in the Georgia Gazette that fighting hadbroker out there between the local militia andBritish redcoats. Moreover, few woNd have ima-gined that this small skirmish would lead to themost revolutionary war in history and that over600 Georgians would be killed and several thou-sand more displaced as an aftermath to Lexington.

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Although the events leading up to Lexingtoncaused a political stir in Georgia, they had littleeffect upon the daily life of most of the colony'sinhabitants. Indeed, there seemed little to com-plain aboUt,ecohomically. In the spring of 1775,Georgi1 was enjoying the benefits of an economicboom that had no end insight. In fact, a fewGeorgians were uneasy over the prospect of, toomuch prosperity. James Habersham, a wealthySaVannah merchant, anxiously wrote a friend inLondon that "we have a greater Number of Vessellsin the Savannah Harbour than has ever been knownhere at any one Time, loading for England and theWest'Indies. The Demand forour, Produce . .. is sovery great, that Iam 'afraid, we have scarcely suf-ficient on Hand to give the Vessellsnow here (andthere are more daily arriving) the necessary Dis-patch." Still. these were good problems.

:orgia's Prewar Economy

James Habersham reflected Georgia's relativeprosperity in 1772. James Wright, governor since1760. equally was satisfied with the colony's eco-nomic boom. "The year I came here," he reportedin 1768, "they did not make 4,000 barrels of Riceand last year we made 17,000 barrels, and fromLoading only 42 Sail of Vessels we have loaded 185in a year, and are making a very rapid progresstowards being an opulent and considerableProvince By 1775 Georgia exported nearly25,000 barrels of rice a year.

Nowhere was the prosperity more evident than

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in Savannah. In 1772 over 160 ships tdtaling12,124 tons and employing 1,700 sailors clearedthe customs house. Additionally, planters and mer-chants in the Savannah area owned wholly or.inpart "five ships, one seven Brigantines, thir-teen sloops and schooners and ten coasting vessels."From the Savannati River southward to the St.Marys, more than 50 trading boats and rafts, mostlyowned-by Savannah merchanta; plied the inlandrivers and' waterways bringing all sorts of cargoesto the towns, docks and,piers. Wharf lots on theSavannah River, once tobe hadfor the asking, werea prized property by' 177. They ran from the site .of the Trustees' Gatd&west of Bull Street to theold Yamacraw Indian village, 33 lots in all. Themost sought after rots those forming the heartof Savannah's old commerce roW were the 10west of Bull Street belonging to:award Telfair,Joseph Clay, Samuel Stiles, John Morel, EdwardHopton, Samuel Dou.glas,Chornas.Llod, JohnGordon, Thomas Netherclif't and the Gibbons'family.

Lining the riverfront east and west of Bull Streetwere port facilitiesliiitable to handle over 20vessels at once. One merchant,AJoseph Wood,owned a warehouse located west of Bull Streetthat was lour stories tall, "fifty,feetklong, andforty-five feet wide.. ._ . divided into ten rooms,sufficient to'holdta.vo thousand barrels-of rice, amachine to hoist gOod's from the wharf into,either,story, or into the upper one, where they are rolledthrough the town." Acrots-Broad Street Woodmaintained "a store for dry goods and a countingroom . a. large outstores," stable and a carriage...house. Still, Wood's establishment was second-ratecompared. to th'e company stores operated by .,.

larger merchants such as Basil Cowper and theTelfairs, the Habershams, and Rae,Elbe'rhand

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Graham, the biggest merchant hieuses in Savannahby 1775: .' t.4,

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In typical eighteenth-century fashion these largermerchant houses engaged in a wide variety of activ-ities. Frequently, they hired, pdrters, mariners, black-smiths, coopeho sailmakers-, clerks and carpenters. '

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By1775 Negroes, free and slave, dominaial theranks of porters, coopers, mariners and blacksmithsin Savannah; but free white labor prevailed in sail-.making. clerking and carpentering. John Wand andRobert Watts, both sailmakers, worked for theTelfairs and the firm of Morel and Mossman. RichardPryce, a cfl-penter, made barrel staves for Rae,Elbert and Graham. Joseph Clay James Habersham'sson-in-13W, depouded upon Negro labor for hoopsand staves.

By the late 1760's larger merchants hadbegun tokeep company gardens to grow vegetables to feedships' Lrews or else they carted in 'produce fromnearby farms and plantations. Additionally, theystocked a supply of prewood, straw, water and

."*Greens"For sailors, boatmen and slaves. Cowperand Telfair also operated a small maritime,repairand salvage yard in Savannah, pitviding pitch, tar,turpentine, nails, , anchors and sakloth for

or overhauls.'ships in need of

DiversificationA Sirccessflil Practice

From1763 to 1774, over 80 different merchantsadvertised goods for sale in the GeorgiasGazette,arid by 1775 the larger firths inLiested money in car-goes, town lots, 'and, buildings. ships, plantationholdings and slaves By the time of the Revolution,the formula for s6ccess in colonial GeOrgia'demand-ed mixed operations-. Thus, a large planter investedhis money, not only in land and slaves but also in ,

buildings. ships, cargoes, ItimbermfO7perations andtown lots. while a merchant' owned caries and plan-tations as well as ships and store. '13 today:s'standards the'volume of btisines1,.was.small. Cowperand Telfair, one of Savannah:s largest, firths, averagedthree sales'a'day daring thefall and winter and onlyone throughout the, rest of the year If a ship's caigodid,riot rfturn a profit when it was sold.in-Fingland.:or in the West Indit!s, or if th6 ship was lost aisea,the impact upon such a small volume of business'often ;1/ r s disastrous Becitusetof this incistGeorgiamerchants.tried;to spread out their base of opera-urns by investing Money in several differ it and./independent enterprises..

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In 1773, mostly through. savannah, Georgiashipped goods valued at thousands of pounds sterling* to London and other Englis-h ports. In themain mil)/ three types of.commodities went directlyto London --rice, indigo and deerskins. Togetherthey accounted fat over 80 percent of the shippingbetween Savannah and London in 1773. The re-.mainder ihcluded a variety of items, some tobaccofrom Georgia, a few articles brought into Savannahfront the West Indian trade such as brasiletto andlogwood, both woods used, in dyeing fabrics, andsago powder, a starchy Substance made from palmtrees and used in eighteenth-century puddings and

'prescriptions. Georgia shipped increasing. amountsof raw silk to London until about 1770.

Georgia's Hinterland,

Opened in 1763,. Georgia's seepnd colonial port,Sunbury, had little impact on the colony's econ6-,my. Concerned mostly with the West Indian tradeand with providing goods and hardware to localplanters and Indian traders, Sunbury remainedsmalitown of 40 to 50 houses and less than 200people. Roger Kelsall and Simon Munro operated

%the largest merchpt house in Sunbury, servingsurrounding plantations and stores in Dorchesterand Midway. In l 773 less than 50 ships,Inostlysmaller-coasting vessels in the We\st Indian trade, -stopped at Sunbury.

Augusta, 150 miles upriver from Saviktilnah,served as a. warehousing center and overland distri-bution point for the Carolina and Georgia Indiantrade,. Here perhaps 600 whites, as many slaves,and an odd assortment of Chickasaw, Cherokee andCreek Indians temporarihy lived while they senttrains of pack horses along the Upper Creek trailinto present -day Alabama and Mississippi, along theLower Creek route through central Georgia, and'along the northward trail to the rich and ILtendaryKeowee country of the Cherokees. Finally joinedto the rest of Georgia by the 1763 land cession

.from th'Illndians, Augusta thereafter supplied pro-visions and goods to a growing number of farms,settlements and townships founded as the tide of

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*PourAs sterling was the Brittsli monetary units used IA i:olonial Georgia. While it is impossible awirately to measure the valueof money through time, an eighteenth century pound sterling might be worth $50 to $70 in American currency today

emigration swept westward from the SavannahRiver on the eve of the American Revolution.

Located atIOut 110 miles to the southeast ofAugusta on the Savannah River, the Gertnan settle-ment of Ebenezer economically was one of'themost important towns in pre-Revolutionary Geor-gia Led by their minister, John Martin Bolzius, theindustrioas Germans raised more than enough forthemselves. As early as 1751, they produced enoughIndian Corn, beans, rice, potatoes, barley and wheatto sell for sizeable profits at Charleston, Savannahand across the river at Purrysburg in South Carolina.Working together, the Salzburgers cleared, plowed,planted and harvested their crops in strips of twoto eight acres in size along the red banks of Ebenezer Creek and the Savannah River. By 1774 theyhad built two saw mills for lumber and one gristmill for grain in addition to a filiature for silk.

A Farther away from the river at Old Ebenezer, the' site of the Germans' first settlement,' the Salz-

'burgers tended vineyards and orchards, gatheredcattle at cowpens located in former Yuchi Indian -

lands and in general, prospered in their adoptedcolony of Georgia. Little did they sense that in thecoming Revolution their way of life would beended forever.

The Importance of the Agrarian Economy

The merchants, traders and artisans who lived inthe towns of. Ebenezer, Augusta, Sunbury andSilvan* accounted for only 15 or 20 pbrgent ofthy. people of the colony in 1773. Just prior to the,-Revolution, over 80 percent of Georgia's popula-tion engaged inAgricultural pursuits on plantationsand farms. Three main types of agricultural unitsdominated the colony's economy. Located in thetidewater area,and along the sluggish coast01 streamsinland for a distance of 20 miles, plantationsemerged based upon "the queen of the seacoast,"rice. From Ebenezer to Augusta along the Georgobank of the Savannah River, a system of f armsintermingled with larger plantations spread west-ward into the interior. Usually having an outlet into

, one of the stream.semptying into the Savannah-or

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Ogeechee Rivers, these farms were Worked by a fewslaves or hired hands, managed byoworking ownerand, to a surprising extent, cOnceiveti-th marketsin Augusta, Ebenezer and Savannah. astly, fron-tier faims dotted the colony's backcountry.Located away from towns and trade Alters,worked by 'families without slaves, helped by hunt-ing;herding and trading between srops, frontierfarmers produced mainly what they consumed.Gradually livestock, especially cattle and hogs, cameto be the backbone of the small frontier farm.

Each of the colony's three agricultural unitstheplantation, farm and small fronti*farmWasmarked by a different division of land and labor.Along the sea coast Negro slaves outnumberedwhites 10 to orig. In the eighteenth century there-was a widely held view that only Negroes couldwork in rice fields! Reflecting that theory of labor,James Habersham declared that lands "that areproper for the cultivation of Rice, on which stag-nated water is sometimes necessarily kept," caused'white inhabitants "to be subject to severe autumnalfevers" which shortened their lives. This land couldonly be "Advantageously improved," Habershamadded; "by people who can purchase a number ofNegroes, and many plantations, from their peculiar

,situation, require a large extent of land for reser-voirs-to water their fields." In this way, by 1775,Georgia's coastal lands stippoik' a plantationeconomy largely dependent upon ;lave labor and

. producing rice as a staple crop.

After 1756, a group of South Carolinians ,(Ae'da great deal of money and time in trying to developindigo as a plantation crop in the lowlands aroundFrederka. Used as a dye in the eighteenth center :.the indigo plant grew well in d hot, humid coastalclimate Sonic Coastal islands also were puraased :(1gro N indigo. but-the attempt la,rgely was d failure.In 20 yearstrfor to the Rtvolution, GeorgiaproduLA a yearly average of 19,000 pounds of.indigo, an ni,ignifreant sum Compared to the it ionsof pounds f! )m Sou,91 Carolina Ana. (1'641163, from Ilorida.

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Even before 1775, indigg,production had de-clined. Traveling through the area around Fredericajust before the Revolution, the botanist WilliamBartram noted the region's general decay. Whilethere were still a few producing indigo plantationsbetween Darien and St. Simons Island, most ownerswere satisfied to employ poor families to raise afew cattle, horses, swine anti poultry and to protectplantation property. Bartram thought that absenteeowners in South Carolina were responsible for thelaLk of develciptnent of indigo.

The region from Ebenezer to Augusta producedthe colony's most diversified agriculture. Havingfavorable soil and climate Ilia without an easily .

marketable crop such as rice, this area was charac-terized by farms, small plantations and some cow-pen operations. Plantations here tended to besmaller, more self-sufficient and with fewer slaves .

than coastal rice and indigo plantations. Farms werelarger and sometimes not distinguishable from"plantations." For example, a 1772 letter from ananonymous settler described his farm "situated ona small but navigable creek, which falls into the .river Savannah, about thirtymiles west of Augusta."Large enough to be called a plantation; the ownerhad "four hundred and forty head of cows, oxen,bulls, and heifers" which he grazed on commonland not claimed by anyone. 0Qe of his first taskswas to "inclose and plant a large orchard," espe-cially peach trees: Still he mostly "Attended to ...Indian corn, wheat, and provisions" which he sup-plied to Augusta. Altogether the unnamed farmerproduced "36 acres of Indian corn ... 26 acres ofwheat, 12 acres-barley, 40 barrels pork, 26 beef,16 acres of tobacco.. . and some hides and live-stock." In general, he concluded, Georgia's farmersand planters were "very much on the thriving hand,yet few are rich, though I have heard of some la7efortunes in Carolina."

The frontier flirrn generally was owned and man-aged by a settler and his family. Seldom rarger than150 acres and usually.having a but of one or tworooms as shelter, frontier farms produced mainlycorn, vegetables and livestock for the farmer's

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family. Except as an occasional buyer of hardware,tools, some cloth and powder and lead, the frontierfarmer had little to do with the market economiesof Savannah, Augusta or Ebenezer Regardless ofhis location, the frontier farmer hail a precariouseconomic existence. Along the seacoast such farmswere located on the poore(land undesirable,forplantation crops. In the interior they occupied thedividing line between uvilization and the pilder-nessand because of their small size, were especiallyvulnerable to human did natural disasters. Indianraids, a bad crop, the loss of livestock or the..d.othof a working member of the family frequentlycaused relocation to a new area. Titus frontier farmswere unusually mobile, appearing and disappearingwith hardly a trade. Gradually, as more land wasacquired and more crops produced for sale, manyfrontier farms became larger farms or small planta-tiOns and merged more into the colony's LommerLialeconomy.

One of the original aims of Georgia's foundershad been the preparation of potashes; used in mak-ing soap, from lumber to take the place of large ,

British imports from Russia. By I 752 potash hadbeen abandoned in favorof the more profitableproduction of barrel staves, shingles and lumber forshipment to the West Indies. By 1763 the industryhad become a winter activity on plantations in theSavannah area. Throughout the colonial period, theemphasis remained on staves and heading for barrels.shingles and construction timber rather than tar,pitch and turpentine as it was in The Carolinas.Lumber production increasedcrapidly as large num-bers of slaves were brought into the colony. Primar-ily in Savannah merchants kept stocks of shniglesand lumb4 which were used to fill the Largo of aship when more valuable commodities were notavailable. By 1772 Georgia exported .3,525,930shingles, 988,791 staves and 2,163,582 feet or tim-ber. Only a few hundred barrels of pitch, tar andturpentine were exported that year.

The People of Colonial Georgia

Georgia's largest economic. resource prior to the

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Revolution was its people. In 1773 there were over18,000 viVtes and 15,,000 blacks in the colony. AsJames Habersham noted, the back country aroundAugusta, 'where the Lands, from their Fertilityaqd healthy Situation, can be profitably cultivatedby and admit of a great Number of White Peoplewithout the\Assistarice of Negroes," contained thebulk of the cololy's white populace. From 1760to 1776, thousands of emigrants, chiefly fromPenifsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas,moved into eastern Georgia between the Savannahand Ogeechee Rivers. The Indian cessions of 1763and 1773 had made the fertile lands of the greatOconee basin available to the tide of emigrants

sweepirig south of the Blue Ridge into the Ca ct-

linas-and Georgia. Thus Georgia became the lastremaining southern frontier with good land avail- '\able before the American Revolution.

In the main, few colonists emigrated to Georgiafrom England in the decade after the French andIndian War. Only the QueensborOugh township,known as the "Irish Settlement" because theycame from Belfast in northern Ireland, attractedlarge numbers of colonists frOm overseas. Becausehe did not want to offend officials in London,Governor Janie's Wright had no desire to lure emi-grants from Scotland, Ireland, England or any placeexcel)/ the British colonies of North America.Basing his program, "for the Better Peopling of thisprovince," upon a highly successful 1 735 SouthCarolina plan, Wright hoped to attract "a middling

ofsort of People" (i.e., a middle class) to Georgia fromPennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas.

But many "Crackers," or lower class settlers, alsocame. Georgia'ssecond royal governor, Henry Ellis,first complained of the poOr quality of upcountrycolonists during the war with France. `Vany of ourKi)ck Settlers," Ellis complained in 1757, "fly forcrimes, and from the disturbances of the North-ward" colonies. James Wright insisted that ruffiansfrorri Augusta continually caused trouble with theCreeks and Chelokees. Certainly they plaguedWright. "There are irregular and bad People amongst

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us, particularly in the back settlements," he WroteLondon in 1767, "who will sometimes interrupt,

--frustrate," and bring to and end all attempts topacify the Indians. To Wright Augusta was "a kindof frontier" town where there were "a few storesfor supplying the Indian Trade, and where numbersof Indians often resort, and in the neighbourhoodof a set of vagrants worse than Indians themselves."

Jaes Habersham feared Georgia might become"a Rendezvous for all Horse-Stealers and Criminals

from neighbouring Provinces" unless law and'order was established in the back settlementsaround Augusta. Writing to,Wright in 1773, Haber-sham characterized upcountry colonistsas "Bor-derers," ruffians without equal. Wright 'respondedby calling them "crackers," mostly "low-born"Scotch -Irish from the middle colonies. Still, by1775, Wright found that "great numbers" ofsettlers, both "crackers" and "a middling sort,"had come to Georgia.

Political Upheaval

James'Wright justifiably was proud of Georgia'seconomic picture by 1775. Contented with theprogress of the last decade, anticipating the settle-ment of the new Indian lands acquired in 1773- andhdpeful that the next years would bring even moreprosperity, Wright and most Georgians confidentlyfaced the future. But it was politics and not econo-mics that governed the troublesome years ahead.As in inany of the colonies after 1773, the politicalclimate was not as good as the economic climate.

The issues which first led to protest and then toresistance to England primarily affected Georgiapolitically and not economically. Although suchmeasures as the Stamp Act of 1765 and the 1767Townshend duties were economic as well as politi- 'cal in nature, they did not work .an undue hard:ship ypon most Georgians. Taken together, theseacts had small effect upon Georgia's economy,

Yet in the northern colonies these new measurescaused widespread depression -and severe financial

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losses. In Georgia they had little significance. The "7- their disapprbval of the new law..lbe Georgiacolony's small class of wealthy planters and mer-chants, probably no more than 50 familiesprimarily were affected by British dutig on foreignluxury articles. Only the Sugar Act of 1764 posed!,any immediate threat to Gethsia's economy. Passedby the British Parliament on April 5, the Sugar Actwas designed to raise 'part of the annual cost of thecolonial military-stablishment. The Chancellor ofthe Exchequer and Prime Minister of England,George Grenville: meant to enforce the act by send-ing naval vessels especially assigned to-Charlestonand St. Augustine.

To protest the Sugar Act, the MassachusettsHouse of Representatives sent a circular letter tothe rest of the colonies asking them to express

Assembly ignored the political argument of "no,taxation miithotit representation" in the Massachu-setts letter and instead based its protest upon ec:o-no,Enic grounds. To Georgia's representatives thenew regulations would end the colony's profitable

olumber .trade with the West Indies. Georgia's lumber

mainlymainly exported in vesselNhat stopped at.Savannah enroute to the West Indies. As the ex-porters did not control these vessels, they-could notgive the required bonds that the lumber would besold only in British islands. The Assembly directedits,colonial agent in London to protest the Sugar .

Act.

At first glance the Stamp Act: which became lawon March 22, 1765, looked Rimless, It required

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every pan-hlei, newspaper, shrp's clearance papers,lease, license, insurance policy. bill of salt;, bnd -

,andall legal documents to be written or printed onstamped paper gold by,Vublic officials. The moneyraised from the sale of stamps was to be used todefend the colonies. The Stamp Act was scheduledto go into effecebn November 1, 1765-.

By November 1 there was no stamp officer orstamped paper in Georgia. 1 ' avannah harbofover20 ships, loaded primarily ice, waited for *.

clearance pars from the c ms house. The°mined advised Govern-or Wight to let the vesselsleave with a certificate stating that no stamps weavailable, and he did so until the stamps arrived inDecember. This delay in exporting rice at the heightof.the tradings season liad an adverse effect uponte-Price brought by Georgia rice.

The Stamp Act disrupted trade in Georgia. Still,when the stamp agent arrived in January 1776:stamps were distributed and about 60 vessels leftwith -stamped papers, In this way Georgia becarnhethe only colony to issue stamps and later rebel. TheStanfp Act changed the controversy between *eor-gia and England from considerations Of profit andloss to those of pillitical principles. It gave"tfieprdvincc a common grothi.d to unite with othercolonies, particularly South Carolina, in protest.Governor Wright later admitted that Georgia wasneverlbe same after the Stamp Act.

' The basic policies of the, British commercial sys-tem did not conflict seriously with Georgia's eco-.noinic interests.on the eve of the Revolution:Yetwhile the events of 1763 to 1775 did not affetmost ,Georgians' pocketbooks, their heartstringswere plucked. The threat of economic interferencecaused uneasiness. Ths_plight of the northern cola.nies, especially Massachusetts, ditl not g9 unnoticedin Georgia. A groat many planters, merchants.andsmall farmers believed the same thing could happenhere. Most of Georgia's people Oad in the backcountry. a pOof, pioneer poptilation easily alarmedby any 'attempt at increased tasation'. Although

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quit rents, or .roy41 taxes oil land, had never beencollected in Georgia, thethoiipit Of their collection*after 1765 served as a constant source of irritationto Georgia's settlers.' .

. .It seeme gppropriate that the first fighting of

the Americ rt Revolution in Georgia centered. around the colony's chief export crop, rice, In

Janua# 1776, British ships and,transports,sudden-ly at ?eared off Tybee Island near Savannah-. .Desperately in need of provisio and supplies fortheir bev;tged troops in Bosto- , the British lookpd

. ,to Georgia,, the southernn ,colony not Jebel-, , ,i

lion,andsrich in provisions, for relief. Opposite thetown of -Sivannah lay 26 merchantmen laden with'rice, forbidden to leave by an Order from, the

ontinent ongress prohibiting the expdrtationrice frOn e "united colonies" until March 1,

f the Georgians v> ho either owned orwere not in sympathy withited the akst opportunityzing this. the Whig's Council

ered "the udders besails be . , -,1 vessels,

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shipped in tht, Bessethe Whig cause and- myto put out to sea-. Rellof Safety in Savannah ounshipped ... and".thal thetaken.away and -seeurad fromnow lying in the port of 'SavannLachlan McIntosh was detailed to en

Bing ate s;eve

. Cokonelthe

order,

Free ni ino,rfiing for Georglans'came on\March 2, I 776. Ilist befog dawn,-about four\o'clock, the sailor guarding the rice.boats,wesurprised by I of,feet, the Tdtqiugofweapons and t',ment, the sound of voices baing orders, and out of.the dark and rhorning rhist'came the redcoats, t 004o300-of:them, under thecommand Of Majors ,lanes Grant and John

Two crewmen escaped to soundihe alarm,and, foGeorgia, the RevOlutiOn was on.

Rebellion and a, Declining Economy

Great Britain responded to th,q,"llattlo of theRice Boats" by prohibiting et:1,rgia from tradingwith any part of the world except the British Isles.the British West Indies and'parts of other colonies ,'

controlled by British armies. To,enforce'the block-ade, British warships patrolled off Tybee Island.The results were dramatic. In all of 1775, Georgiashipped products valued at £103,477 to England.The export figure for.1776 was oneljyt?12,570. In177Tand 1778 nothing was shipp to England.Only the tall of Savannah to thy British in 1778reopened trade with England. Still, the value ofexports to England in 1780, 1781 and 1.782 whenSavannah' was occupied by the British never .

reached prewar levels, in 1782 only £6,804 ofexports, or approximately five percent of the1775 total, made its way to England. After theRevolution began, regardless of who controlledthe port of Savannah, Georgia's direct trifie,withEngland was insignificant.

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British naval vessels on the coast in 1176 soine-times interfered with Georgia's trade but did notentirely stop it. Merchants in Savannah managedto send out vessels to trade with the Dutch.andFrench West Indies. Joseph Clay, who controlledJames Habersham's intpresttss Swiannah aft&Habersham's death in r775, occasionally tradedwith Cape*trancois, the main port of the French-held island of Saint Domingue (Santo Domingo),ankin two instances, ships from Bermuda andFrance liut into Savannah with "very valuablecargoes." For some months in 1776 and 1777 theWhig government'in Savannah planned to tradedirectly with France. Peter Etnthanuel De laP1 j.,AiliNtwas appointed trade agent to the FrenchF..arrs General, but nothing ever came of thescheme

Yet while the policies of the Second ContinentalCongress effectively shut down Georgia's directtrade with Great Britain, Florida experienced alarge increase'in the volume of exports to thewther country. Some Georgians, especially in th.,erca south of the Altamaha, shi 'arket for

their props and produce fr Savannah toAugustine, preferring th established trade pratand sta currency of Great Britrain. From 1777 01782, StAugus e replaced Savannah as Georgia's

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link to England's markyts, and considerable quanti-ties ofyiee.from Georgia made its way to GreatBritain this way.

InSavannah.the Council of Safety early beganbuying up large volumes of r-ic'e stortd in ware-houses. Faced with 'S scarcity of hard money, theimpossibility of drawing bills of exchange onEnglish merchants and a lack of established credit,the Council of Safety and its pblitical successorshoped to ship rice as payment for military supplies,salt and other'needful articles." John Wereat wasappointed spmmissioner of public trade and aninsurance office wag .set up to insure cargoes ofGeorgia shippers. Soon representatives from Congress arrived in Georgia to buy.up agricultural,products and ship them northward as a means ofpaying for supplies.for the war. Robert trorris,head of a secret Congressional committee whichpurchased and exported prodtice, sent agents toSavannah and Augusta where they contracted with"many gentlemen from ... Georgia" to furnishsupplies.

The Currency Failure and Continuing Decline

By the summer of 1778, this governmental tradehad.broken down. Back country farmers found thatContinental currency was worthless and they in-creasingly were reluctant to sell their products toCongressional agents. Several vessels were capturedor run aground trying to escape British vesselsbetween Charleston and Savannah, and.insurancerates jumped 40 percent. British naval activity was'irregular and ineffective at times, but it kept manytrade goods from Savannah's merchants -and stores.Foreign goods became so scatche necessities oflife," Joseph Clay called themthat-dry goods andhardware at Ebenezer sold for many times theirpreyr purchase price. Depending upon importedEnglish goods for its maintenance, the Indian tradethrow h Augusta and Savannah was suspendedbee se of a lack of supplies. By early 1777 farmers

he_back country experienced shortages in agri-ctiltural necessities such as axes, harnesses, horse

Atollars, trace chains, whips, nails, sickles and files.

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By September 1778, there was little fdreign trale-froreSavannah, and public confidence in the hewgovernment began to drop as stocks of goodsdwindled.

As a source of foreign goods, a c6nsiderable inter-nal trade with Charleston was maintained in the.early years of the war. From Augusta to Savannaha vast array of rafts, barges and pole boats movedgoods from Georgia's inteilor to Ebenezer or Sava li-nah where they were shipped (Berland to Charleston.Ebenezer became a focal point of this inland trade,and in the spring and fall of 1777 and 1778, hun-dreds of wagons gathered 'at the German settlementsalong the Savannah River to carry supplies toCharleston and to bring foreign' goods backito Geor-gia in return. With the fall of Savannah tatheBritish in Decetnber 1778, and the occupation ofEbenezer soon thereafter, this overland-trade to theCarolinas ended.

At the beginning of,the Revolution in Georgia,there was an abundance of food within the calbny.Throughout its short colonial history Georgia hadbeen dependent upon the middle and southerncoloniel, particularly Pennsylvania and the Caro-linas, for a portion of its gcainsupply, but by 1'775,the province had a sprOis of other provisions andcrops above consumption requirements. Corn, peas,livestock; salt meat and rice regularly were expoil-ed from the colony, and in 1774, 63 barrels of ricewere sent to Boston to relieve the suffering causedby the closing of Boston harbor. Except for ricethe proportion of prewar exports' to domestic pro=duction in Georgia had been small, and the surplusquickly was eliminated by Wartime needs. By 1776the Continental Congress had placed an embargoon certain food products, espe'cially salt beef andpork. and in 1778 a sweeping embargo on all grainand provisions was enacted which lasted through-out the war.

Both I 776 and I 778 were disastrous crop Yearsfor the southern states, especially Georgia. So littleflour from Pennsylvania and Maryland made its way

Rice in shock. Courtesy, Special Collections Department, Universityof Georgia Library.

to Georgia that a sweet bread fashioned from coma,always popular in colonial times, became-a favoredsubstitute. A shortage of implements, seed and labormade 1778 a far from bountiful year in the state,and a late winter in 1779 threatened growing cropsas far south as Midway. Corn became the state'sindispensable crop daring the Revolution, and inthe summer of 1 7.76, Congressional representativeswere authorized to impress corn and to purchaserite from Georgia.

Although cattle were plentiful in Georgia in I 774and I 775, demands by British and American armies':by the French fleet Which landed at Savannah, underCount d'Estaing ip I 779 and the seizure and destruc-tion of cattle by raiding bands of Whigs and Toriesseverely taxed the available supply. The, regionbetween the Altamaha and St. Johns Rivers changedhands often as the fighting swirled southward, andmany plantations, cowpens and farms were de-,stroyed. Congressional officials in the area frequent-ly reported shortages and'4ifficulties in obtainingneeded food 'supplies. At tlit'siege of Savannah,both sides had trouble obtaining beet and pork, and

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the French fleet Sailed away with.livestodk takenfrom nearby plantations;

A great scarcity of salt, especially in 1777 and1778; seriously limited the supply of beef and pork.Time and again Congressional representatives founda plentiful s,upply of livestock to slaughter only aprecious few because of a lack of salt.. Before thewar Georgia-imported almost all its supply and thenew government was unprepared to provide thiscritical requirement. In early 1777 the State pro-hibited the exportation of salt, and only a fewbushels came infrequently into Georgia fromVirginia and the.French West Indies. So valuableWas the commodity that it sometimes wasused topay soldiers for, their service. Salt continued.to bescarce throughout the war. -

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Part of the problem in obtaining supplies forstate and Continental forces lay in the money usedfor payment. By the summer of 1776 the newlyformed state government issued paper currency topay its troops and to serve as a mdium of ex-change. In less than a year the state money hadbegun to depreciate. In May 1778, a Savannahmercharrtaccused the State of printing so muchpaper currency that its "value had been reducedto nothing." By the time the British occupiedSaVannah, Georgia currency had depreciated farbelow the value of money issued by the ContinentalCongress. Never accepted outside Georgid, thismoney became almost worthless within the state aswell."

The Revolution brought to a close two decadesof prosperity for Georgia's rice and indigo planters.The Continental embargo on exports of provisionsincluded rice, and Congress recommended its strictobservation in Georgia. The 1775 crop, largest inthe colony's history, only partially was marketed,and warehouses in Savannah were filled to capacitywhen fighting broke out in March 1776. Someeventually found its way to England, to the FrenchWest Indies and to the north for the consumptionof the Continental army.

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The.War for Georgia

As the new rebel government'took over inSavannah in 1776 and began to extend its controlover the rest of Georgia, plantation owners in theOgeechee and Midway districts still loyal to theKing of England, prepared to leave. Gathering uptheir families and slaves, these Loyalists abandonedtheir plantations and moved south toward Florida.At first the state tried to operate the abandonedplantations, but the effort largely proved unsuc-cessful. After the British re-established control in1779, many Loyalists returned to their homes; butthe harassments and disruptions of constant parti-san warfare ruined the planting cycle of rice andindigo. Then, too, separation from England meantthe loss of the bounty which in large part encour-aged the production of indigeWtbough quantitiesof both commodities were exported from British-'held Savannah in 1780 and 1781, productionnever reached prewar levels. Nevertheless, riceremaipatiNi important staple. As the British beganto prepare for the evacuation of Savannah in 1782,many merchants urged General Alexander Leslieto postpone the withdrawal until the late fall sothat the low country crops, including 10,000barrels of rice, could be gathered.

The capture ofsSaN%annah by the British was fol- .

lowed by the penetration of Tory and Royal forcesto every part of the State except the northernmostand westernmest-settlements. A constant bush-wacking warfare began and bands of Whigs andTories carried off staves, confiscated property, de-stroyed crops and burned farms and settlements.'The intensity of the fighting in.I 780 and 1781caused many people to leave Georgia, especially inthe upcountry region around Augusta. Hundreds ofGeorgians fled to safer areas in South Carolina,North Carolina and Virginia. After the British evac-uation of,Savannah in July 1782, many refugeesbegan returniWg to theft homes. By the end of 1783there, were more people living in the upcountrythan ever before.

The low country from Savannah to the St. Marys

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River was not as fortunate. In The winter and springof 1779, a great many Loyalists returned to theirabandoned plantations as the British capturedSafannah. They were joined by Tory refugees fromtO, Carolinas and Virginia, and by 1780 a plantationeconomy in the tidewater region had been partiallyrestored. The fall of West Florida to the Spar h in1780-1781 brought still more Tory settlers toGeorgia, and by 1781 the growing number of refu-gees strained the.fragile economy of the areaCoastal raids,'forays by irregular bands and thethreat of attacks from the Spanish and French fur-ther disrupted qade and commerce. Many wealthy

0 families were dined and plantations reduced to.aSad sate.

AAftermath of the War

The close of the war brought Georgia's greatesteconomic loss. As the British left Savannah they

' took hundreds of slaves and thousands of pOundssterling of good9 with theilt. Altogether, Georgialost perhaps 6,000 slavesWho were carried off toFlorida or the West Indies. Just before the Britishevacuated Savannah, the Georgia legislature triedto relieve the loss, by appointing agents to nego-tiate with persons in the British Jines for the pur-chase of slaves about to be carried away. Few wirebargained for. So great was the scarcity of slavesin 1783 that ordinary Negroes sold for 70 to 100guineas, four times their prewar price.

Georgia also suffered through the flight of largenumbers of Tories who were men of property andskills. So many plantations had beer] abandonedthat the state found it necessary to appoint mana-gers and overseers to prevent systematic pillage. InSavannah many of the resident merchants wereLoyalists. When they left, a great deal of the in-debtednesses owed by individuals was wiped out.At the beginning of the Revolution, the statelegislature wanted to take action against the personand property of specified classes of Loyalists, butlittle was done until 1782 when a confiscation andbat'lishinent act.was'passed. Throughout the war,

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,the constant confiscation, restoration and forfeitureof property created confusion as th6 tide of war

\shifted back and forth. Frequently thoLcoorgiaGazette carried advertisements for owners of estates'an,d property who could not be found. In the back,settlements handbills listed abandoned farms andplantations. The greatest exodus of whites andslaves came in the coastal rice-plantation area.

ThelAose of theAmerican Revolution in 1783left Georgia with disorganized property relation-ships, a scarcity of capital and confused finances.The state's chi\ef resources, its inhabitants and theirskills, also suffered because of the exodus of Toriesand slaves. Bad crop seasons in 1785 and 1786further added to the state's economic plight. Withthe rest of the new nation, Georgia endured thepanic of 186, but within a decade there was steadyimprovement and a rapid repaif of the damage andloss of the war years. Gradually firtancial stability,increased trade, new settlers and a confidence thatcame with being a new nation all contributedtoward the adoption of a new Constitution in 1788.

The American Revolution marked the end of anage in Georgia's economic life. Thecolonral periodhad been characterized by established trade rela-tionship's with the mother country, by bountiesandby an almost medieval system of acquiring and own-ing land'. In theory it was the king who owned landand to whom rents were due. ..l.n-der this system riceand indigo flourished, mercantile interests in Londondominated GMgia's commerce and an extensiveplantation economy developed in the coastal lowcountry. Special commodities such'as hid indigoand raw silk were favored by Britain's commercial '

system, lumbering increased, and Georgia prosperedin thedel:ade prior to the war.

The New Order

The Revolution char d niuch of this. With /11\eestablishment of a ne government there .Lamefresh ideas about. land acquisition and ownership.Now it was to be give to soldiers as bounties or to.

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settlers with few, if any, rents or fees attached. Asearly as 17746, land ha Peen given to Whigs as abounty for army e stments or for service in thewar. Throughou the Revolution, Georgia had usedpledges of land. to recruit state and Continental .

soldiers and to bring new citizens toGeorgia. Nowthat the fighting the state made gdodits promise. Plots of -50 acres exempt from taxesfor 10.years were to be given to Georgians whoremained in the state and served in militia dur-ing the British occupation. Those wlib left but hadserved in Whig forces elsewhere were given the same

,amount of land.

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The promise of land bounties and the richness ofthe'backcountry caused a large migration of settlersinto Georgia when the fighting stopped in the tsummer of 1782. One application for bountiescame from ConnecticVt troops who remembeieedthe fertility of the state's piedmont when theyserved in Georgia during the war. Olcbsettlers re-turned. By April 1783, even befori the Bntish leftSavannah,.`over 500 fanTilies reportedly had settledin the bac'kcountry in the preceding six months. Tothose settlers the end of the Revolution meant thebeginning of a new life, and land was the key totheir hope for the future.

Rice fields, showing canals. Courtesy, Special Collections Department, University of Georgia Library.

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Because so many T6ories left Georgia, there nowwere more opportunities for advancement andimprovement, and the new society was more equaland mobile. Economically, one class of_Ge,orgians(besides the Tories) benefitted little from the Re-,olution. At the bottom of the economic scalebefore the war, Negro slaves still occupied the-bottom rung after 1783.

After the Revolution rite and indigo never againdominated the state's economy to the extent of .

1773. The coastal low country became less impor-tant. economically and politically as the center of

Georgia's agranan empire moved' into the rich pied-mont. Ebenezer and Sunbury, two emerging centersof Georgia's economy before the Revolution, dis-appeared with hardly a trace. In the upcountry,Augusta never again dominated the Indian trade asit had before 1776 but became Important a's a faintrading center. After' the Revolution, Georgia'seconomy hardly had time to adjust to all thesechanges before a more radical transformation tookplace. Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin nearSavannah'in 1793 marked still another revolutionarychange in the state's economic life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Candler, Allen D. and Lucian Lamar Might, pds., The colonial Records of the State of Georgia. 26 vols.Atlanta. Various state printers, 1904-1916. (Vols. 27-39 unpublished IIT manuscript at the GeorgiaDepartment of Archives and History in Atlanta.)

NCandler, Allen D , ed., The Revolutionary Records of the State of Georgia. 3 vols. Atlanta The Franklin-. Turner Co.

Coleman, Kenneth, The American Revolution in Georgia, 1 763-1 789,, Athens The University of GeorgiaPress, 1958 (Especially Ch. 10.)

Coleman, Kenneth, Governor fames Wright in ,Georgia, 1765- 178'3. Atlanta. Georgia Department ofEducation, 1975. ,

Cook, James F . The Stump Act in Georgia Atlanta Georgia Dep tmtnt of Education, 1974.

Coulter, E Merton1 Shot t llistorl of Georgia Chapel HIII. The U iversity of North Carolina rress, 1933,revised .1949, 1961.

Georgia Historical Society. Collections Published by the Society.

III "Letters from Governdr Sir James Wright, 1774-1782.- Savannah, 1873.K

VI "The Letters of the Honorable James Ilabersham, 175(A-1775." Savannah, 1904.

VIII "Letters of Joseph flay, Merchant of Savannah, 1776-1793." Savannah, 1913

Nevins, Allan, The American Suitestes During and fter the Revolution, 1 77-1789 New York TheMacmilhan Co., 1924.

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Teacher'sGuide

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Thelma '11).. DavisFranee. McKibben

TeachersRidgeview High SchoolFulton Cotwity Schools

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Focus

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The fOcusof this guide is the economic situation in Georgia prior to and during the American RevolutiOn.major emphasis is placed on he following points.

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'1. - Georgia's early economic activity was concentrated along the coast.

2. Georgia's early-economy was based 4n shipping and products groduced by coastal farms andplantations.

3. Georgia's economic wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few individuals located in Savannah.

4. Georgia's economic progress was dependent upon British needs.

5. Until 1776 Georgia's economy, in contrast to other colonies, experienced very few setbacks.

Skill Objectivesnfor the Student

Develop and interpret a graph.

Construct a diagram of a social system.

Practice library skills.

Gather and interpret data.

Present gathered data in an art form.

Ixtrning Objectiyes

Identify early influential Georgians. ,-

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Develop an hypothesis about the close economic relationship between the Georgia Lolony,and.Great Britain.

Recognize the major economic activities of the GeOrgia colony.

Speculate about the impact of migration into Georgia on the colony's economy.

Understand the reaction in the Georgia colony to 8ritish regulatory legislatron..

Recognize the impact of militarction, disastrdtis crop years and shortages of staples on theGeorgia economy.

Identify the economic changes-which wera result of the Revolutionary War.

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Suggested Vocabulary.

Naval stores

Cirtular letter

Quit Rents

Pillage

Confiscation

Primogeniture

Entail

Agrarian

Suggested Schedule

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This unit will fake about two weeks depending on the number of activities used. A tentative outline ofGeorgia's early .commercial developments follows.

I. Founding and development of Savannah.

II. The migration inland from Savannah.

III. The events which influenced the economy of Colonial an4 Revolutionary Georgia,

Activities

These activities are numbered to correspond to the suggesteck.chedule.

I. Founding and development or Savannah

A. Distribute an outline map of the city of Savaanah (circa ON). Assign iludtnts the task ofidentifying the major commercial activities. The students should, ast a color key, for each ofthe major businesses. Example: James Habersham's establishment on the river front shouldbe located and colored red.

B. What's My Line: Students should go to the library fo research individuals in the Georgiacolony such as Joseph Clay, Edward Telfair, James Habersham, Governor James Wright'James Martin Bolzuis, William Bartram, Henry Ellis, etc. Some students should be assignedsecretly a specific role to research. Other members of the class will be told that they w21.1ask questions of thesestudents to determine their identity. (Similar to the game show.

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"What's My Line.") All students should be allowed to research colonial Georgians who hada role in the economic growth of the colony.

II. The migration inland from Savannah .

A. After the students have completed readings on the social groups in the GeorgriaTcolonyz askthem to construct a diagrani of the social organilation. Divide the studentinto small groupsand allow five to 10 minutes for comparisons and discussion of their (1144'1ms. Then ask thestucfelits,to defend their selectionsbbefore the whole class.

B. Imagine you are a Georgian in one of the three agricultural units. Write a diary which depictsyour life as a colonial Georgian for a period of,one week. Have students-exchange theirdiaries with others. Each student should read the diary and analyze it for historical accuracy,reality and interest. Selected diarie(ald,be shared with the whole class.

"6\ III. The events which influenced the economy of Colonial and Revolutionary Gyorgia

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A. Roving Reporter: This activity centers.around the_firsf fhting of the American- Revolution inGeorgia "The Battle of the Rice Boats." Divrde cla§g into groups of six. One member of ,the group should be assigned the role of reporter, the others the roles of a BriVsh sailor, JosephClay, Major Grant, Colonel McIntosh, a small farmer. The students should fie alloWed' time to,research their roles so that they can answer questions 'on their feaetion,to the British blockade .>of Savannah. The reporter should make up questions which will draw, out.bconomic-, politicaland social reasons. for the role player's reactions to the "Battle of the Rice Bdats.- As a summa =.tion each member of the group should write out a one -page report on the economiL impact ofthe blockade on colonial Georgia.

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B. Mural: Georgia is building a World Trade Ce ter. You have been commissioned to do a mural onthe economic growth of colonial Georgia to hang in the lobby of the Trade Center. You should.show the variety and iniportanco of colonial products "and the contributing grOirps.

C. Develop an economic timeline using the'major Georgia products. Some ma.terial is included inthe readings and the students should gather additional information. This timeline should beconstructed on poster board and displayed where the class can disk.uss fe CL0110111k growth.The following diagram is a suggested form,

1775 1276 1777 1778 1 779 1780 1781 17 1783

Amts. in(100's)131-1-shels,

Barrels,Etc. . , ..

The following is a'sugrted color key.

Rice red. ,Indigo = blueSilkyellowNaval Stores green

Suggested Discussion Quiotivs

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1 Define an economic indicator. Identify several economic indicators in colonial Georgia. What do

2. What might be some arguments-for and against a diNersified economic base? How might a colonialGeorgian have argued on tlis point?

these dicators suggest about the economy of Georgia in 1776? in 1780?

3. Explain why the major products of colonial Georgia were rice, indigo, c and naval ;lore's.

Identify thethree main types of agricultural units in the colonial economy. Which of these con-tributQd.!,nost to the colony's growth? Why?'

5. Speculate upon the role of the slave in each of the three agricultural units. If you Were a slave, inwhich of the wilts would you leave preferred to live?

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6. E/plain why ypu would agree orAlisagrc'e with thelauthorl.sslatement, "Georgia's largest economicresource prior to the Revolution wasits people."

7. Why didIGovernor Wright attempt to attract as settlers "a middling sort of people?" How wouldyou define "a middling sort of people?" How successful was Wright in these efforts?

8. Which of the following acts, the Sugar Act or the Stamp Act, had the greatest influencon Georgia'seconomy? Support your answer with data from the reading.

9. What would have been yoUr opinion of the'"Baitle of the Rice Boats" if you had been the captainof a ship preparing to sail with a cargo of rice? What would have'beefi_your opinion ligtl,bu been a memberof the Whig's Council of Safety in Savannah? It '.-

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10. .What types of scarcities developed in Georgia during the ReVolution? Identify the-causes for thesescarcities. When flour became 'scarce icy Georgia, a type of sweet bread made from corn becalne a substitute.Speculate on other substitutes which might have been used.

11. Defend or refute this syltement, "Ge,orgia was better off without the Tories and their ideas aboutbeing loyal to England."'

12. Name,two changes brought about by the Revolutionary War which affected Georgia's economy.Determine whether these changes were beneficial or detrimental to Georgia's economy.

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,BIBLIOGRAPHY

Coleman, Kenneth. American Revolution in Georgia 1763-1789. Athens. UniveySity of Georgia Press.

Coulter, E. Merton. Georgia. A Short History. Chapel Hill. The University of North Carolina Press.,

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Evans, Lawton B. A History of Georgia. Spartanburg: The Reprint Company.

Johnson, Amanda. Georgia As Colony and State. Atlanta: Cherokee.Publishing Company.

King, Spencer B. Georgia Voices. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

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McCullar, BerniLe". This Is Your Georgia Northport, Alabama. AmeriLan Southern Publishing Company.

Moritgornery, Horace. Georgians in Profile. Athens: University of Gecrtgliress.

Reese; Trevor Richard. Colonial Georgia. Athens University of Ge rgia Press.

Saye, Albert B. New Viewpoints in Georgia History. Athens. University of Georgia Press.

smith, George G. The Store of Georgia and the Georgia People., 'Baltimore Genealogn.al Publishing Company.. .

Strobel, P. A . The Salzburgers and Their Descendants. Baltinore: T. Newton Kurtz.

Temple, Sarah Gober and Coleman, Kenneth. Georgia Jourilejs 1732-1754. Athens. University of GeorgiaPress. t V di

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BOOKLETS IN THIS,SERIES

1974* Revolutionary Background. 1763-1775(=hur'l's Dmns, Tidewater Community College, Frederick, Virginia

The Stamp Act in Georgia. 1765-1766Janie" Cook. Floyd Junior College. Rome. Georgia

Military History, 1 73'6 -1782C .Stephen Gur. Georgia Southwestern College. Americus - Georgia

1975 Governor James Wright t Georgia. 1 765-1782°r

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ice/twat 0)/emart, University of Georgia. Athens, Georgia

Economic Change in Revolutionary Georgia, 1775-1789Milton ReaA. University of North Carolina, Asheville, North Carolina

The Frontier anrthe Indians in the Revolution in Georgia,Jung's II O'Donnell. Marietta College: Ohio

1976 The Negro in Revolutionary Georgia.4/ton Hornsby. Morehouse College. Atlanta. Georgia

Loyalism in Revolutionary Georgia//cod Robertson. Attorney-at-law. Augusta. Georgia

Political Changes in Revolutionary Georgia, 17'75-1785Char/es MO/cr, Dalton Junior College. Dalton, Georgia

1970 Architecture in Revolutionary Georgia`Itirlham R 11101(.11.1r . Historic Augusta. Augusta. Georgia

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Social Change in Revolt, tionaryoGeorgia. 1775-1789Fred ,1////s, LaGrange College. LaGrange. 'Georgia

Ge'orgia and the United States Constitution. 1"787-1789J Grt.1.1m, West Georgia College, Carrollton. Georgia

I978 Results of the Revolution and Independence in GeorgiaMilton Reach . University of North Carolina. Asheville, North Carolina and Kenneth Coleman.

Univet sity o1 Ceorgia. Athens, Georgia

l'} car ot innu wined publication

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